San Fransisco Chronicle October 2, 1994

Milla Cuts a 'Divine' Album
by Michael Snyder

At 18, willowy and lovely Milla Jovovich has already done the modeling
thing and the acting thing. Now her music is taking precedence. An
exotic, poetic debut album on SBK, "The Divine Comedy," has garnered a slew
of favorable reviews for the dulcet-voiced singer-songwriter, who opens for
Crash Test Dummies at the Warfield on Friday.

Milla was born in the Soviet Union to a Ukrainian actress and a Yugoslav
doctor. When she was 5 years old, her family emigrated to Sacramento. A
few years later, they relocated to Los Angeles, where she becam a pubescent
model. From there, it was a short leap to film work. You may remember her
from the soft-core "Return to the Blue Lagoon" or from small roles in
"Chaplin" and "Dazed and Confused."

So why did she put her movie career on hold? "I guess I went into music
because I wanted to express myself," she said last week by phone from a
North Carolina tour stop.

"I always feel better off behind a piece of paper, writing. And, in the
film world, I've never experienced the emotional levels I've reached by
music."

On her first coast-to-coast concert tour after a short series of club
dates, Milla, who uses just her first name in her music endeavors, is
traveling with a four-piece band that includes three Swedish folk
musicians. Her boyfriend Stuart Zender, bass player in the British
world-beat/funk band Jamiroquoi, is along for the ride.

"It's been wonderful," she said. "I could have taken the easy route and
stuck with modeling and acting. I was given the opportunity to record a
dance-pop album, but I decided to be true to myself and do something more
personal - music that would show my soul."